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Chapter 28
Inside the laboratory, where traces of the zombie virus were already leaking into the air.
At the very center of it, Jang Sunam pressed his hand against his forehead.
‘Can a man really be this unlucky…?’
Of all people, the very first one he killed happened to be Hong Taegyun.
The one man he had intended to capture alive for information—slain at the very start.
‘Feels like the whole damn world is conspiring against me.’
His plan had gone completely off course.
With the most crucial man dead, there was no way to extract the information about the Demon God’s Seed.
“Mr. Hong Taegyun, sir, there’s a matter of great importance. I must ask you to look at this.”
The man in front of him slid a document forward.
Thinking it was worth checking, Jang Sunam lowered his gaze toward the file.
At that exact moment—
Stab!!
The man thrust a dagger hidden beneath the papers straight at him.
“Ghh—!”
That was close.
Had Sunam not instinctively shifted, the blade would have pierced deep into his stomach.
“Hooh…? To dodge that? You’re better than you look.”
The man laughed, tossing the file carelessly to the floor.
‘This bastard… it was an act!’
It wasn’t that the man had mistaken him for Hong Taegyun. He had planned from the start to disarm his suspicions and then launch a surprise attack.
‘Which means…’
Clutching the shallow wound bleeding at his side, Jang Sunam spoke aloud.
“So you’re the real Hong Taegyun.”
“Yes. That’s right. Tell me, intruder—what’s your purpose here?”
“What else? I came to slit your damn throat.”
Sunam revealed the weapon wrapped in cloth—the goblin halberd.
Unfortunately, its special effects were sealed. Inside the Gate, outside rules did not apply. Here, it was nothing more than ordinary metal.
“Keh-heh. So you’ve never fought inside a Gate before, eh?”
Hong Taegyun drew a longsword from his hip, sneering.
“In this place, where no one can use skills, wielding such a massive weapon is tantamount to suici—”
Whishh!!
“—Wh-what?!”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Sunam’s halberd darted forward, forcing Hong to roll frantically out of the way.
“You bastard! At least let me finish talking, you coward!”
“Why the hell should I wait?”
Without the slightest pause, Sunam pressed his attack.
“Kh—!”
Clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang!
Despite the restriction on skills, Hong Taegyun handled the blade surprisingly well. He blocked and deflected, barely evading by instinct.
“Damn it, how are you swinging that huge thing so fast?!”
“Why bother asking? You’re about to die anyway.”
The halberd was heavy, yes, but its reach was long and it needed no fancy technique.
That was why spear-men always held such advantage on the battlefield.
Swish! Swish-swish!
Clang! Clang-clang!
“Urgh…!”
Hong Taegyun might have been a skilled swordsman, but he had drawn the worst possible opponent.
Jang Sunam was a man who had lived through battlefields for hundreds of years across six regressions.
Inside a Gate or not, the sheer weight of his combat experience would not disappear.
“Checkmate.”
Stab!!
“Gwaaaahhh!!”
The halberd tore deep into Hong Taegyun’s thigh.
“Mr. Hong Taegyun!!”
The researchers who had been standing guard all around screamed as they rushed forward, weapons in hand.
“Hah! How considerate of you, gathering all in one place.”
With a grin, Sunam swept his halberd in wide arcs.
Unlike Hong Taegyun, the researchers had no talent for combat. They fell screaming one by one, unable to resist.
“Gaaah!”
“Ughh!”
Ten men down—barely a minute’s work.
When Sunam turned back, Hong Taegyun was already dragging his injured leg, staggering toward the exit.
“Aah… I wouldn’t go that way if I were you.”
Sunam smirked.
And just then—
“Khkk?! Ghhkkk!! Ughhhk!!”
Hong Taegyun convulsed violently, collapsing before the exit. Through the tear in his damaged hazmat suit, the zombie virus had seeped in.
“I already dispersed your little virus into the air with a humidifier…”
He trailed off, glancing down at his own side.
The hazmat suit, torn earlier by Hong’s blade.
“…I almost got f***ed too.”
Inside the Gate, even his 〈Disease Resistance〉(S) was sealed.
If he didn’t act, he’d become a zombie himself. Quickly, he ripped a roll of duct tape from a crate and sealed the tear.
He had nearly joined the damned.
Meanwhile, the other researchers’ suits were beginning to leak as well.
“Kiiehhk!!”
“Aaarghh!!”
The virus filled the room, infecting every breach. One by one, the researchers transformed into zombies.
Had he been twenty seconds later, he would’ve suffered the same fate.
“Since ancient times, the surest cure for a virus has been fire.”
Sunam eyed the diesel generator in the corner, used for internal power. Around it, dozens of fuel canisters lay stacked.
He grabbed one.
“Graaaah!!”
He doused the charging zombies with fuel, flicked his lighter—
Whooooshh!!
“Guuaaahhh!!”
They went up like torches, thrashing as the flames spread, turning the entire lab into an inferno.
“You’re coming with me.”
He severed zombie Hong Taegyun’s head in a single strike, then wrapped the still-chattering mouth with layers of duct tape.
“Mmfff!! Mmmfff!!”
Even decapitated, the man lived on as a zombie. Now, Sunam only needed to carry him out.
The exit door cracked open—
“Oh? Is that a fire—”
Slice!
“Ghhkk!!”
Sunam cut the newcomer down in a blink, then hurried back the way he came.
Every researcher he encountered fell the same way—no mercy for those complicit in atrocities.
At last, he reached the very first chamber.
‘Perhaps I should take that corpse too.’
The impostor who had worn the white authority badge on his suit. Likely Hong Taegyun’s double—second in command.
Such a man might have carried valuable gear. Best to loot it.
Sunam stripped off his hazmat suit—it would be sealed outside the Gate anyway.
“Heave-ho.”
Left hand: zombie Hong’s head.
Right hand: the impostor’s body.
He stepped out of the Gate.
Immediately, the impostor’s corpse disintegrated into a pile of loot.
“What the hell happened?!”
Guards who had just finished fighting the goblin bigs turned, startled. They hadn’t realized Sunam was an intruder.
“There was a traitor inside! Quick, go subdue that lunatic! He’s still in the lab!”
“Damn it!!”
Believing his confident lie, the guards charged back into the Gate.
One man remained, posted at the entrance.
“You’re not going in?”
“One of us always guards the exit. The usual guy’s gone missing, probably the toilet or something.”
“I see… Mini-Tsunami.”
“Huh? Mini-Tsunami?”
Before the guard could process the words—
Whump!!
“…Wha—?!”
A portal yawned beneath him, swallowing him whole. He vanished into some faraway place.
“Any other enemies nearby?”
“None, nya.”
A cat slinked out of the shadows—Jelly.
“You think you can copy DNA without getting infected?”
“Thanks to my evolution, I can transform into inorganic matter. Perfectly safe, nya.”
With liquid-metal tendrils, Jelly absorbed the corpses, replicating their DNA.
“I’ll also gather all dropped loot and inventory items, nya.”
Sunam smirked. Truly convenient—he no longer needed to loot painstakingly by hand.
‘Then, next step…’
He glanced back at the Gate.
“Mini-Tsunami, test something. Enter the Gate and return.”
“Yes, Master.”
She stepped inside, barefoot. Moments later, she came back unharmed.
That meant summoned beings were exempt from the Gate’s restrictions.
“Jelly, inside you won’t be able to use shapeshifting tricks. Enter transformed into a pure killing form. Watch the virus too.”
“Got it, nya.”
In an instant, Jelly expanded, morphing into a metallic kraken bristling with blade-tentacles.
“Here’s the map. Clean them out. Remember—loot only drops outside the Gate, so bring their heads.”
“Nyahahhh!”
Laughing darkly, Jelly seized a pair of shoes from the loot, touched the Gate, and vanished inside.
‘They thought the Gate was safe… now they’ll know hell.’
At the far end, the virus awaited. At the entrance, a kraken closed in.
For the guards, it was the end of the world.
“Mini-Tsunami, open to a sealed chamber.”
She nodded, forming a portal.
On the other side—
“Wh-what new experiment is this time…?”
Lee Gwangseok, now half-bald from stress, cowered in a prison cell.
Sunam stepped through, closing the portal behind him.
He dropped zombie Hong’s head to the floor.
Slice!!
One swing of the halberd severed it in two.
At once—
“Khkk?!?!”
Hong Taegyun resurrected, springing back in alarm.
“Wh—where am I?!”
He scanned the area, hurriedly pulling up his inventory window.
“…What??”
Everything was gone. Emptied. Jelly had stolen it all.
The only items left were those bound to his torso, which Sunam had not carried out.
“Damn it… what the hell is going on.”
Still, he drew his longsword, trembling.
Jang Sunam watched him calmly, then grinned.
From his own inventory, he pulled out the 〈Goblin Warrior Set〉 and 〈Shattered Warhammer〉(E)+2, sharing them with Gwangseok.
“Gwangseok. Don’t you want to know who stole your White Authority?”
At that, the color drained from Hong Taegyun’s face.
